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The latest NHS figures show that the number of people waiting for routine hospital care has grown to 7.7 million.
The figures also showed that 389,952 people in England have been waiting for more than a year for routine hospital treatment, and 7,289 for more than 18 months.
While the number of people experiencing long waits has dropped significantly over the past two years, the government has failed to achieve its target of eliminating all waits of 18 months or more by April.
NHS bosses say this mounting figure has partly been caused by ongoing industrial action, with 885,154 rescheduled inpatient and outpatient appointments since strike action began.
Cancer targets consistently missed
With waiting lists growing longer, more and more patients are missing out on the care they need. Indeed, all four cancer targets were missed in England in July 2023, including targets for suspected cancer referrals, diagnostic standards, and treatment standards.
The figures reveal:
- 77.5% of patients were seen by a specialist within two weeks of an urgent suspected cancer referral. The target is 93%.
- 74.1% of patients were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days of an urgent referral. The target is 75%.
- 62.6% of people received their diagnosis and started treatment within two months of urgent referral. The target is 85%.
- 91.8% of people started treatment within 31 days of doctors deciding a treatment plan. The target is 96%
Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive says the figures are “amongst the worst on record and represent anxious delays faced by patients and the immense pressure on NHS staff.”
“People affected by cancer deserve more,” she said. “With strong leadership and proper funding, the UK Government has the power to put an end to these unacceptable delays for tests and treatment in England.”
Mounting pressures in A&E
The data also reveals mounting pressures in A&E departments, with 6.5 million attendances across June, July and August – more than 20,000 higher than the previous record in 2019.
This added pressure in A&E meant that under three quarters (73%) of emergency patients were seen within four hours. This is below well below the 95% NHS standard and the government’s 76% recovery target.
However, there were some improvements, including that category two ambulance response times were more than 10 minutes faster in August than the same month last year, and category one calls had an average response time of 8:17, quicker by almost one minute compared to the previous year.
Waits of more than 65 weeks or more are also dropping. In July, there were 96,722 waiting for 65 weeks or more, down from 149,770 in the same month last year, and 233,051 in July 2021.
Industrial action cannot be blamed as sole cause for long waits
Despite positive results in some areas, this data shows that the NHS is under immense pressure, and health leaders are concerned that upcoming strike action will only hinder future efforts to tackle the backlog.
Siva Anandaciva, Chief Analyst at The King’s Fund, said: “The Prime Minister made tackling waiting lists one of his key priorities, but the longer industrial action rumbles on, the less likely that ambitions will be met.”
Mr Anandaciva added that “short-term thinking has slowly run the NHS into the ground, with ministers instead opting for quick fixes to patch up major problems.” He says while the recently announced funding package will go some way to boosting winter capacity, community and primary care must also be a focus.
Nuffield Trust Acting Director of Research Dr Sarah Scobie also highlights that while more operations and appointments would have taken place without the strikes, only a “tiny fraction” of the millions of patients waiting for treatment would have started treatment had the dispute been resolved.
“The sobering reality of NHS services struggling to help patients in need is once again apparent in today’s data, with 839,000 people joining the waiting list for planned care in the last year alone. The Prime Minister’s pledge to bring down NHS waits looks as challenging as ever to meet.
“Industrial action alone cannot be blamed for continued long waits – given that before the strikes began, the number of planned operations hadn’t yet recovered even to pre-pandemic levels, and it still hasn’t,” she said.